Congressional Documents Congressional Records: There are two major areas of documents which sometimes cause confusion. The first of these is the "X" area which contains the Congressional Records. To simplify the filing of these documents, the documents are filed by year. Some of the earlier Congressional Records are on microfilm and are filed with the periodicals on microfilm. Most of the Congressional Records are on microfiche. They are filed at the beginning of the X's in the documents microfiche drawers with the daily issues first and the bound volumes for the same year following them. Once we have received the complete bound volume set, the dailies for that year are discarded. The microfiche have their own indexes, but for most years we also have a bound index as well. The bound indexes plus a few dailies and bound volumes which are not on microfiche are shelved in the documents stacks. House and Senate Documents and Reports: Originally the Senate and House Documents, House and Senate Reports, Senate Treaty Documents, and the Senate Executive Documents were assigned numbers such as House Document X 90/2 or Senate Document X 90/2 . In the paper documents, these are filed after the hearings. Shortly after we began receiving these document on microfiche, these documents began to be assigned SuDoc numbers such as Y 1.1/3, Y1.1/4, etc. A few of the earlier Senate and House Documents and Reports still retain the earlier classification such as S. Doc X 96/2: and H. Doc. X 96/2: To keep these with the bigger collection of documents and reports under the new classification numbers, these are filed at the beginning of the other documents of the same class. Thus Senate documents with the classification S.doc X96/2, etc. are filed at the beginning of the Y 1.1/3's and H. doc. X96/2, etc are filed at the beginning of the Y1.1/7's. Fortunately, these will seldom be requested because of their age. All are filed in the Y1. area. The Hearings: The Y 4.'s are the hearings and committee prints of Congressional Committees. The "Y 4." denotes that the document is a Congressional hearing or print. The letters and numbers after the "Y.4." and before the colon ":" designate the Congressional Committee. Y4.AG8/3: designates the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. Y4.B85/3: designates the House Committee on the Budget. After the colon ":", the next part of the classification number is either a Cutter, or the Congressional Session. Y4.B85/3:D36/7 Y4.B85/3:103-25 Within each Committee section (i.e. Y4.B85/3:), Cuttered documents are shelved first because letters come before numbers in the SuDoc classification scheme. After the Cuttered documents, Y.4.'s are shelved by Congressional session. For example: the 99th Session hearings are all shelved together, 100th Session, 101st Session, etc. Y4.B85/3:103-25, Y4.B85/3: 103-26....Y4.B85/3: 104-1, Y4.B85/3: 104-2 One very confusing factor about the filing of the Congressional session documents is the placement of the Senate Hearings and Committee Prints. Several years ago the SuDoc system was changed to reflect the Senate Session number and the Serial number for each hearing or committee print. Y4.Ag8/3: S.Hrg. 103-381 = Senate hearing #381 of the 103rd Congress. Y4.Ag8/3: S.Prt. 103-2 = Senate committee print #2 of the 103rd Congress. The House hearings are simply denoted by session and serial number. Y4.B85/3: 103-25 = House hearing #25 of the 103rd Congress. It would appear that Senate Hearings and Prints should be filed with the Cuttered documents, but this is not the case. They are always filed after the Cuttered documents thus keeping them in order chronologically. Senate Committee: House Hearings with session and serial number also follow the Cuttered numbers because letters come before numbers. House Committee: Senate Committee prints and House Committee prints are filed after the Hearings of the committees. Y4.J89/2: S.Hrg. 101-54, Y4.J89/2: S.Hrg. 101-68, Y4.J89/2: S.Hrg. 102-5, Y4.J89/2: S.Hrg. 103-8...Y4.J89/2: S.Prt. 101-5, Y4.J89/2: S.Prt. 102-3
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